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+
+Making Filesystems Exportable
+=============================
+
+Overview
+--------
+
+All filesystem operations require a dentry (or two) as a starting
+point.  Local applications have a reference-counted hold on suitable
+dentries via open file descriptors or cwd/root.  However remote
+applications that access a filesystem via a remote filesystem protocol
+such as NFS may not be able to hold such a reference, and so need a
+different way to refer to a particular dentry.  As the alternative
+form of reference needs to be stable across renames, truncates, and
+server-reboot (among other things, though these tend to be the most
+problematic), there is no simple answer like 'filename'.
+
+The mechanism discussed here allows each filesystem implementation to
+specify how to generate an opaque (outside of the filesystem) byte
+string for any dentry, and how to find an appropriate dentry for any
+given opaque byte string.
+This byte string will be called a "filehandle fragment" as it
+corresponds to part of an NFS filehandle.
+
+A filesystem which supports the mapping between filehandle fragments
+and dentries will be termed "exportable".
+
+
+
+Dcache Issues
+-------------
+
+The dcache normally contains a proper prefix of any given filesystem
+tree.  This means that if any filesystem object is in the dcache, then
+all of the ancestors of that filesystem object are also in the dcache.
+As normal access is by filename this prefix is created naturally and
+maintained easily (by each object maintaining a reference count on
+its parent).
+
+However when objects are included into the dcache by interpreting a
+filehandle fragment, there is no automatic creation of a path prefix
+for the object.  This leads to two related but distinct features of
+the dcache that are not needed for normal filesystem access.
+
+1/ The dcache must sometimes contain objects that are not part of the
+   proper prefix. i.e that are not connected to the root.
+2/ The dcache must be prepared for a newly found (via ->lookup) directory
+   to already have a (non-connected) dentry, and must be able to move
+   that dentry into place (based on the parent and name in the
+   ->lookup).   This is particularly needed for directories as
+   it is a dcache invariant that directories only have one dentry.
+
+To implement these features, the dcache has:
+
+a/ A dentry flag DCACHE_DISCONNECTED which is set on
+   any dentry that might not be part of the proper prefix.
+   This is set when anonymous dentries are created, and cleared when a
+   dentry is noticed to be a child of a dentry which is in the proper
+   prefix. 
+
+b/ A per-superblock list "s_anon" of dentries which are the roots of
+   subtrees that are not in the proper prefix.  These dentries, as
+   well as the proper prefix, need to be released at unmount time.  As
+   these dentries will not be hashed, they are linked together on the
+   d_hash list_head.
+
+c/ Helper routines to allocate anonymous dentries, and to help attach
+   loose directory dentries at lookup time. They are:
+    d_alloc_anon(inode) will return a dentry for the given inode.
+      If the inode already has a dentry, one of those is returned.
+      If it doesn't, a new anonymous (IS_ROOT and
+        DCACHE_DISCONNECTED) dentry is allocated and attached.
+      In the case of a directory, care is taken that only one dentry
+      can ever be attached.
+    d_splice_alias(inode, dentry) will make sure that there is a
+      dentry with the same name and parent as the given dentry, and
+      which refers to the given inode.
+      If the inode is a directory and already has a dentry, then that
+      dentry is d_moved over the given dentry.
+      If the passed dentry gets attached, care is taken that this is
+      mutually exclusive to a d_alloc_anon operation.
+      If the passed dentry is used, NULL is returned, else the used
+      dentry is returned.  This corresponds to the calling pattern of
+      ->lookup.
+  
+ 
+Filesystem Issues
+-----------------
+
+For a filesystem to be exportable it must:
+ 
+   1/ provide the filehandle fragment routines described below.
+   2/ make sure that d_splice_alias is used rather than d_add
+      when ->lookup finds an inode for a given parent and name.
+      Typically the ->lookup routine will end with a:
+
+                return d_splice_alias(inode, dentry);
+        }
+
+
+
+  A file system implementation declares that instances of the filesystem
+are exportable by setting the s_export_op field in the struct
+super_block.  This field must point to a "struct export_operations"
+struct which has the following members:
+
+ encode_fh  (optional)
+    Takes a dentry and creates a filehandle fragment which can later be used
+    to find or create a dentry for the same object.  The default
+    implementation creates a filehandle fragment that encodes a 32bit inode
+    and generation number for the inode encoded, and if necessary the
+    same information for the parent.
+
+  fh_to_dentry (mandatory)
+    Given a filehandle fragment, this should find the implied object and
+    create a dentry for it (possibly with d_alloc_anon).
+
+  fh_to_parent (optional but strongly recommended)
+    Given a filehandle fragment, this should find the parent of the
+    implied object and create a dentry for it (possibly with d_alloc_anon).
+    May fail if the filehandle fragment is too small.
+
+  get_parent (optional but strongly recommended)
+    When given a dentry for a directory, this should return  a dentry for
+    the parent.  Quite possibly the parent dentry will have been allocated
+    by d_alloc_anon.  The default get_parent function just returns an error
+    so any filehandle lookup that requires finding a parent will fail.
+    ->lookup("..") is *not* used as a default as it can leave ".." entries
+    in the dcache which are too messy to work with.
+
+  get_name (optional)
+    When given a parent dentry and a child dentry, this should find a name
+    in the directory identified by the parent dentry, which leads to the
+    object identified by the child dentry.  If no get_name function is
+    supplied, a default implementation is provided which uses vfs_readdir
+    to find potential names, and matches inode numbers to find the correct
+    match.
+
+
+A filehandle fragment consists of an array of 1 or more 4byte words,
+together with a one byte "type".
+The decode_fh routine should not depend on the stated size that is
+passed to it.  This size may be larger than the original filehandle
+generated by encode_fh, in which case it will have been padded with
+nuls.  Rather, the encode_fh routine should choose a "type" which
+indicates the decode_fh how much of the filehandle is valid, and how
+it should be interpreted.